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Thread: [Deck] Death and Taxes

  1. #10001
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    I think people are a little too hyped on Brightling, I've played a few leagues with it online (which is admittedly much more unfair) and I felt myself sideboarding it out constantly. I think if it really were a game changer, we would see DnT doing a lot better in tournament results, when really the results post-DRS have been about as good as you'd expect, maybe even worse. I don't think Brightling is unplayable or anything, I think I even hyped it myself a few pages back. But the perfect spot in the deck for the card would be a tutorable 1-of for when you need the effect, and unfortunately it's not tutorable.

    In RW builds I have found Magus to be considerably worse - the new tier 1 just doesn't have a lot of decks that care about Blood Moon. OTOH, Direfleet Daredevil has been great - basically the only tier 1 deck that doesn't care about that guy is Moon Stompy. Storm now plays Thoughtseize so he's reliably great in that matchup, DRS being gone also makes him more reliable at sorcery speed. Shalai is also a card that's been pretty solid for me.

    This is my current list: https://www.mtggoldfish.com/deck/1198669#paper

    Online I'm considering going to Mindbreak Trap in the board, since my 5-0s all seem to be busted up by the Storm grinders.

  2. #10002

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Less time than grinders, but a couple of thoughts.

    1. I really, really like Brightling vs. Miracles (much more of a problem for them than Cataclysm and Gideon so far), but I am not sure I like it better than Mirran Crusader or Serra Avenger in any other match. I kind of want it as a sideboard card more than a maindeck. Don't get me wrong, it is powerful and great when it does it's thing, but it is very, very mana intensive and not tutorable.

    I'd like Marungo to jump in because he does not particularly like Brightling.

    2. Remorseful Cleric hasn't had to fight much graveyard stuff yet, but I won a Storm match off of it by making them not get BBB mana from their tutor because I exiled their graveyard and I won a Lands match by stealing some lands + Loam. The card feels flexibly good against a lot of decks that use the graveyard at all. It has had more impact than Brightling so far.

    @iatee
    1. With Wasteland returning to prominence, does the red splash feel riskier or has it been okay?

    2. As a Shalai booster myself, how has Shalai felt? Where has it been best/worst for you?

  3. #10003
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    It's good against all Bolt or P Fire decks, great against Miracles, worth the risk in the mirror/Maverick despite being Karakasable because it's so powerful if they don't have an answer. If you can make it to turn 4, it's another card ANT can't beat game 1, so it's the rare 4 drop you still kinda want vs combo. It's pretty bad vs Griselbrand decks, but against pretty much anyone else I've found it over-performing.

    Also, I've never thought the red splash was considerably softer to Wasteland, especially not with 24 lands. (Certainly softer to Back to Basics, or a fast Blood Moon on the other side.) I'm not even sure there are more Wasteland decks in total, considering that Lands has sorta disappeared and Delver is a smaller share of the overall meta now. There's also no more downside to putting lands in your own graveyard - before the RW fetches were providing free DRS fuel, which was a subtle but real drawback. The red splash may be a tiny bit softer to RUG Delver, but playing a million Caverns makes up for a lot of the weaknesses. I won a game the other day vs t1 Delver, t2 Delver, a million Dazes in hand with Cavern on Pegasus into Cavern on Angel.

  4. #10004

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    @iatee
    Picking your brain some more...

    Why Wingmare instead of Prelate main? I feel like they are both bad vs. Stompy, but Prelate can shut Canadian threshhold off of basically every non-creature spell or end Storm on the spot, etc. Plus, Prelate is 2/2 not 2/1. Would you end up taking out DFD if Prelate was main?

    Do you miss Mirran Crusader?

    What is PtE in for? Delver, basically, since Reanimator is being hated out so hard with graveyard hate?

    If Magus is weaker than it was, what do you want it in the main for?

  5. #10005
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by redtwister View Post
    @iatee
    Picking your brain some more...

    Why Wingmare instead of Prelate main? I feel like they are both bad vs. Stompy, but Prelate can shut Canadian threshhold off of basically every non-creature spell or end Storm on the spot, etc. Plus, Prelate is 2/2 not 2/1. Would you end up taking out DFD if Prelate was main?

    Do you miss Mirran Crusader?

    What is PtE in for? Delver, basically, since Reanimator is being hated out so hard with graveyard hate?

    If Magus is weaker than it was, what do you want it in the main for?
    Prelate is great vs Stompy actually, Prelate on 4 shuts off almost everything we care about in that deck. And yeah, it's good against Miracles, RUG, Storm, SnS...I dunno, maybe it should be main, even with Lands mostly out of the picture. I've always liked exactly one Wingmare in the main, it's been reliably good for me over the years. I think being a generic flyer that can trade for Delvers or attack past a clogged board makes it better g1 in the creature-based matchups. The biggest downside of our deck is without Brainstorm, g1 you don't get to shuffle away your STPs vs Storm or Moms vs Eldrazi, so you can get punished with the wrong draw. When Prelate is bad g1, it's a Grey Ogre, when Wingmare is bad (fair creature matchups) it still flies with equipment, so I guess that's my logic.

    I think this is also a good argument for Brightling being in the board for people who are playing it in Mono-w. It's not that that card isn't very powerful, and in the Sensei Miracles era it would definitely be right in the main, but it's bad g1 against enough of the field. Remorseful Cleric, which still seems a bit underpowered to me at least passes the same test that Wingmare does.

    I don't think the Prelate/DFD nonbo is that relevant, probably less so than the DFD/Thalia nonbo in my experience.

    I think Mirran Crusader is pretty mediocre at the moment, it's okay vs RUG Delver when they don't have a bolt, okay vs Miracles and DnT as just the big man on campus, okay vs combo as a fast clock. But unless some sort of BUG deck becomes tier 1 again, it's just gonna be okay and it's not gonna have the games where it was TNN.

    And Path is just good, maybe worse now that Delver isn't everywhere, but we still just fundamentally are low on removal relative to other decks, if we could play more than 4 STPs we would be doing that already.

    As for Magus, maybe I don't want it in the main, or maybe just one copy. It's still good to have access to it vs the decks that can't beat it, but it's definitely worse vs the field than it was now that DRS doesn't allow for the same ridiculous manabases.

  6. #10006

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Prelate has not been good in practice for me vs. Threshold. I'm absolutely not saying it is bad in the matchup, but every time I have the opportunity to use Prelate, it either dies right away to abrade or , or they have had the opportunity to drop their Seal of Fire, or he's countered.

    I'm trying out certain micro-strategies currently, for instance, if I have a Surgical in hand and get the opportunity to Wasteland them in response to a fetch, I'll hit their trop and take them all if they don't have a second on the board. I'm also happy to do this on a Mongoose.

    How do you peeps board vs. thresh? Until this ban update, I've never had the opportunity to play against it with DnT since I started playing a couple months before top ban.

  7. #10007

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    A second guest touranment report?! And this one also says Brightling is good?!?!

    @iatee
    I would sort of want a Remorseful Cleric in your maindeck over the second Magus. I think it would improve the toolbox package you are going for with your build, but it is another non-human for cavern purposes. More generally though, I'm not really sure if there is a compelling reason to splash right now given how good I feel about the WW builds.

  8. #10008

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by redtwister View Post
    Less time than grinders, but a couple of thoughts.

    1. I really, really like Brightling vs. Miracles (much more of a problem for them than Cataclysm and Gideon so far), but I am not sure I like it better than Mirran Crusader or Serra Avenger in any other match. I kind of want it as a sideboard card more than a maindeck. Don't get me wrong, it is powerful and great when it does it's thing, but it is very, very mana intensive and not tutorable.

    I'd like Marungo to jump in because he does not particularly like Brightling.

    2. Remorseful Cleric hasn't had to fight much graveyard stuff yet, but I won a Storm match off of it by making them not get BBB mana from their tutor because I exiled their graveyard and I won a Lands match by stealing some lands + Loam. The card feels flexibly good against a lot of decks that use the graveyard at all. It has had more impact than Brightling so far.

    @iatee
    1. With Wasteland returning to prominence, does the red splash feel riskier or has it been okay?

    2. As a Shalai booster myself, how has Shalai felt? Where has it been best/worst for you?
    Basically since redtwister and I go to the same store on tuesdays we talk about the deck all the time. I played Brightling main this past week and it was great vs miracles and a strict downgrade to crusader everywhere else. I always wanted to spend my mana on disruption and such and was forced instead to pour it into this 3/3 to make it relevant. I have it in the board right now to board vs miracles and stoneblade. Card is great vs fair decks with plow but I haven’t loved it otherwise.

    Losses in my past 2 events have been to Eldrazi, Miracles and a draw vs. Miracles. List has felt solid but miracles feels pretty tough for us even when I have resolved a Brightling. They just make me bounce it, play Jace on an empty board and it’s real rough going.

  9. #10009

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    I've updated my DnT Card-Scoring table.

    I had to evaluate a bunch of stuff with respect to new decks, so feel free to message me with comments or corrections.

    Results were obviously very different than the DRS era, but the degree of change is shocking. It largely validates what I've experienced and heard.

    The top five creatures right now are Recruiter, Flickerwisp, Stoneforge, Brightling, and Thalia. The key takeaway I think is not Brightling, but actually Stoneforge: the resurgent power of this card is what has DnT feeling so great right now.

    Beyond that, flyers are important, while Prelate and Revoker are essential disruption elements and not to be excluded without good reason. There is also probably a lot of room for a super-tax build with 3-4 Wingmares again.

    Hope this info was helpful to some of you.

  10. #10010

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Hello all, this is the list I've been running with for reference:

    Creatures: 26
    4 Mom
    4 Thalia, GoT
    4 SFM
    3 Revoker
    2 Serra Avenger
    4 Flickerwisp
    2 Recruiter
    2 Brightling
    1 Sanctum Prelate

    Spells: 11
    4 Vial
    4 STP
    1 Jitte
    1 SoFI
    1 Sword of Light and Shadow

    Lands: 23
    12 Plains
    4 Wasteland
    4 Port
    3 Karakas

    SB: 15
    2 Cataclysm
    2 RIP
    2 Containment Priest
    2 Path
    2 Canonist
    2 Surgical
    2 Council's Judgment
    1 Leonin Relic-Warder

    Nothing too crazy in the main or board, except for a couple things:

    1. 23 Land. I don't care what Phil says. I generally trust him, but 24 lands with no additional utility lands causes additional flooding, which feels bad. While it makes Brightling marginally better, I don't think the risks outweigh making your beater better. Judging from the tournament reports, it would seem y'all feel the same.

    2. Cataclysm has felt very good. Gideon did not seem necessary as the additional threat, and Cataclysm lets you just win the game.

    3. This is the big sticking point: SoLaS over Batterskull. This is something I am testing, and it has felt better than Batterskull more often than not. I would rarely fetch BS before due to the downside of SFM dying and K Command over-taxing our mana. Now I don't know which decks I would even want it for outside of possibly burn, where Jitte is arguably as good. I've heard the argument that it is great against RUG delver, but is it? A single stifle and you have done nothing with your last 2 turns. It is certainly better against Eldrazi, but I think that's about it. the protection SoLaS offers has felt incredibly relevant vs the more common mirror match, maverick, and miracles. I acknowledge SoWaP is better vs miracles as well. That said, SoLaS returning creatures to your hand is also more relevant since DRS isn't eating all of them now.

    I would like some legitimate answers as to what BS is better against than SoLaS, as I am struggling to think of any huge matchups. I appreciate the feedback guys.

  11. #10011
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by DisgruntledElk View Post
    Hello all, this is the list I've been running with for reference:

    *list*

    Nothing too crazy in the main or board, except for a couple things:

    1. 23 Land. I don't care what Phil says. I generally trust him, but 24 lands with no additional utility lands causes additional flooding, which feels bad. While it makes Brightling marginally better, I don't think the risks outweigh making your beater better. Judging from the tournament reports, it would seem y'all feel the same.

    2. Cataclysm has felt very good. Gideon did not seem necessary as the additional threat, and Cataclysm lets you just win the game.

    3. This is the big sticking point: SoLaS over Batterskull. This is something I am testing, and it has felt better than Batterskull more often than not. I would rarely fetch BS before due to the downside of SFM dying and K Command over-taxing our mana. Now I don't know which decks I would even want it for outside of possibly burn, where Jitte is arguably as good. I've heard the argument that it is great against RUG delver, but is it? A single stifle and you have done nothing with your last 2 turns. It is certainly better against Eldrazi, but I think that's about it. the protection SoLaS offers has felt incredibly relevant vs the more common mirror match, maverick, and miracles. I acknowledge SoWaP is better vs miracles as well. That said, SoLaS returning creatures to your hand is also more relevant since DRS isn't eating all of them now.

    I would like some legitimate answers as to what BS is better against than SoLaS, as I am struggling to think of any huge matchups. I appreciate the feedback guys.
    No Mirran Crusader? He's a house against RUG, immune to Goose and Goyf and eats Delvers for afternoon snacks. His only fears are taken care of by equipping Fire & Ice, or by Jitte counters. Prelate@1 is huge, even if they're running Abrade (which also is a strike against Batterskull when combined with Ancient Grudge). Honor of the Pure also seems decent, pumping any 3/3's out of their single-spell kill range while also mitigating your losses from any Sulfur Elementals.

    I'd agree with you on Light & Shadow, it could be more relevant now that Black Mana Dork is gone.

  12. #10012

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    It seems to me that Miracles is a key reason to run WR, and that is because Pia and Kiran Nalaar may be the actual hardest threat for them to deal with, more so than Gideon, Cataclysm or Brightling. If you add Shalai, it severely limits their ability to deal with your board except for Terminus, while also potentially disallowing Jace + against you since you can't be targeted.

    R might also offer a couple of other sideboard options besides those in iatee's list.
    - Sudden Demise, maybe? Probably not unless Goblins get bigger and Elves come back. Oddly enough, quite good versus Mentor Miracles.

    - Abrade is an option we also don't discuss, but against Stoneblade, in the mirror, and against all the Stompy decks it is outright fantastic. Expensive vs. Delver, but fully usable.

    From W removal, should we be considering Blessed Alliance if Infect is in fact back, Eldrazi Stompy re-emerges, also very good versus Stoneblade and Sneak and Show, and sweet tricks with Mom untaps?

    @Lord Darkview
    Some feedback from other players on the list would be helpful because I am not sure I agree with many of your scorings of specific cards. Please note, I know you never claimed scores were not a partially subjective judgment AND the list is AWESOME, so all criticism is meant as supportive of the basic idea and intended to provide and further generate feedback.

    I definitely do no agree with your valuation of the R cards, though I would defer to iatee and other more experienced RW players on re-valuations. For example, Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Versus DnT you can shoot Mom with the tokens and there is no protecting against that, which makes it at least a 2 in that match, even not considering that it kills most DnT threats and is three creatures for one casting that can be repeated. Aside from DnT, against any deck with fliers and/or removal, it creates blockers (e.g. good vs. Lands and BG Depths and probably therefore a 1, not a 0) and can gum up a board with Karakas better than even Lingering Souls, which is no small feat.

    I also don't know why you give Brightling a 1 for Storm, Reanimator, BG Depths and a 2 for Reanimator, but zeros on all for P+K. Maybe it is better versus Reanimator because of lifelink, but that is about it and doesn't seem worth more than 1.

    It further strikes me as interesting that you value THC so highly, but it is inferior in practice over years of testing now to many, many of the cards you rank below it. It's best spot, and then only on turn 3 or 4 off of vial, is vs. Sneak and Show, but there I would say Revoker is a 3 vs. Sneak and Show now that they run the token maker, as Revoker not only stops Griselbrand activations and Sneak Attack, but Arcane Artisan.
    Last edited by redtwister; 07-21-2018 at 01:53 PM.

  13. #10013
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Yeah P/K is fantastic in the mirror. Colorless tokens that can block things regardless of protection and trade with Flickerwisps, direct damage, and Karakas-loopng during board stalls. Palace Jailer and Direfleet Daredevil are both also great and definitely not 1s.

  14. #10014

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by iatee View Post
    Yeah P/K is fantastic in the mirror. Colorless tokens that can block things regardless of protection and trade with Flickerwisps, direct damage, and Karakas-loopng during board stalls. Palace Jailer and Direfleet Daredevil are both also great and definitely not 1s.
    Magus is not great in the match-up. Can you reliably resolve P&K against a waste/port/revoker deck if you remove that option to facilitate it?

  15. #10015
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    I used to always take them out vs all Wasteland decks assuming that was gonna be the case, but in practice that just has rarely been true and I keep them vs DnT and Maverick.

    DnT mirrors go long and there are only so many Wastelands to go around - Cavern is usually a pretty low value target. Revoker sometimes hits Vial when you're trying tempo the other guy out, but a good percentage of the time you can't afford to shut off your own Vial, or you have to target a more pressing threat like Jitte or Mom. So I've found my Vials to be live more often than not. Occasionally it's gonna be stuck in your hand, but it's worth it because it offers you a ton of different things you want in the matchup in one card.

  16. #10016

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by redtwister View Post
    It seems to me that Miracles is a key reason to run WR, and that is because Pia and Kiran Nalaar may be the actual hardest threat for them to deal with, more so than Gideon, Cataclysm or Brightling. If you add Shalai, it severely limits their ability to deal with your board except for Terminus, while also potentially disallowing Jace + against you since you can't be targeted.

    R might also offer a couple of other sideboard options besides those in iatee's list.
    - Sudden Demise, maybe? Probably not unless Goblins get bigger and Elves come back. Oddly enough, quite good versus Mentor Miracles.

    - Abrade is an option we also don't discuss, but against Stoneblade, in the mirror, and against all the Stompy decks it is outright fantastic. Expensive vs. Delver, but fully usable.

    From W removal, should we be considering Blessed Alliance if Infect is in fact back, Eldrazi Stompy re-emerges, also very good versus Stoneblade and Sneak and Show, and sweet tricks with Mom untaps?

    @Lord Darkview
    Some feedback from other players on the list would be helpful because I am not sure I agree with many of your scorings of specific cards. Please note, I know you never claimed scores were not a partially subjective judgment AND the list is AWESOME, so all criticism is meant as supportive of the basic idea and intended to provide and further generate feedback.

    I definitely do no agree with your valuation of the R cards, though I would defer to iatee and other more experienced RW players on re-valuations. For example, Pia and Kiran Nalaar. Versus DnT you can shoot Mom with the tokens and there is no protecting against that, which makes it at least a 2 in that match, even not considering that it kills most DnT threats and is three creatures for one casting that can be repeated. Aside from DnT, against any deck with fliers and/or removal, it creates blockers (e.g. good vs. Lands and BG Depths and probably therefore a 1, not a 0) and can gum up a board with Karakas better than even Lingering Souls, which is no small feat.

    I also don't know why you give Brightling a 1 for Storm, Reanimator, BG Depths and a 2 for Reanimator, but zeros on all for P+K. Maybe it is better versus Reanimator because of lifelink, but that is about it and doesn't seem worth more than 1.

    It further strikes me as interesting that you value THC so highly, but it is inferior in practice over years of testing now to many, many of the cards you rank below it. It's best spot, and then only on turn 3 or 4 off of vial, is vs. Sneak and Show, but there I would say Revoker is a 3 vs. Sneak and Show now that they run the token maker, as Revoker not only stops Griselbrand activations and Sneak Attack, but Arcane Artisan.
    Quote Originally Posted by iatee View Post
    Yeah P/K is fantastic in the mirror. Colorless tokens that can block things regardless of protection and trade with Flickerwisps, direct damage, and Karakas-loopng during board stalls. Palace Jailer and Direfleet Daredevil are both also great and definitely not 1s.
    On the red splash: I think that Abrade is an amazing card, as is Sudden Demise, and both have potential if people return to this approach. Blessed Alliance has potential as well, but it tends to not be good enough against SnS (because Annihilator trigger is on the stack before you can use this). It's really handy against other aggro decks though, especially ones with TNN.

    As for the feedback, it's all welcome, and I appreciate you giving it. I have less experience with the red splash, and will often defer to other's expertise. I can provide the reasons for my evaluations, however.

    Regarding Pia and Kiran (which is a card I play elsewhere, and love): You are right on most of these evaluations. It is definitely a 2 in the mirror, and I've increased it accordingly: it creates flying, colorless tokens, and can dominate the board absent opposing answers. Those answers are in abundance, but it forces the opponent to have them: Wasteland for Karakas; Revoker, Mom or Shalai for the activated ability. I also rated it 1 against both Lands (because it is powerful, but vulnerable to Punishing Fire and doesn't attack on the most relevant axis) and Depths (because it is powerful, but often too slow); my chart indicated those ratings were a 1 and not a 0 already. As far as why it rates a 0 versus Storm, Reanimator, and Dredge (which I assume you meant, and not Reanimator twice) it is simply too slow; those matchups are often done by turn 3, and 4 is the absolute latest.

    Brightling scores 1 against Storm because there is the potential to gain life against Storm by turn 4 (thus increasing the difficulty of their kill) or simply beating Goblins in a similar manner to Batterskull, a 1 against Reanimator by virtue of actually being able to race some of their fastest threats, and a 2 against Dredge for being able to wall off opposing creatures faster and self-destruct to wipe out Bridges. I'm actually thinking this may be giving Brightling too much credit in the Dredge match, but it's very close between 1 and 2.

    As for Thalia HC, the fact is that this card is amazingly good and constantly undervalued. Despite that, context is important. She's not played because (a) she has extremely stiff competition at the 3-mana level, and (b) her strengths are often in matches that are either already lost or won without her. Still, if you can free a redundant slot for her, I recommend you try it. Recruiting her just does weird things to some decks, like making Sneak Attack much less impactful, making Elves a lot slower, and making Reality Smashers a lot less intimidating.

    Revokers are better than they have been in a long time. It is very good in the SnS matchup, and I'd fit a third in my deck if I could. Revoker easily gets the 2 of "very good" for answering Artisan and Sneak Attack, but a 3 requires it "dominate the matchup." This is very hard to do when it doesn't answer the opponent's most dangerous angle of attack (Show and Tell, especially for Omniscience), that it requires a proactive guess or Vial to block Sneak Attack in time, and it folds to their best SB card against us (Kozilek's Return) with no lingering protection. The matchup in general is hard to earn a 3 in, because SnS operates on so many angles (as opposed to something like Storm or Reanimator, where the way to get a 3 is obvious). The only card that gets a 3 versus SnS is Prelate because it can answer theoretically anything that's thrown at it, and can especially handle the most dangerous angle and best sideboard card. That said, if Arcane Artisan becomes a mainstay in the matchup, even Prelate may lose it's 3 in this matchup.

    Jailer is not great in any matchup where the opponent can surprise you with an attack you cannot block. That means opposing Vials, Moms, Sword of War and Peace, and simply teams of flyers can invalidate Jailer. When you're ahead, Jailer will keep you there, but it is otherwise highly risky. This falls under the "very situational abilities" criteria of a 1.

    Direfleet Daredevil is in the same boat. The only target in the mirror is likely to be opposing StP (plus PtE and CJ in SB games). The ability to use it is therefore situational: you need the opponent to have the spell there at the right moment, to not have Mother of Runes ready, to not have Vial Flickerwisp ready, and to not have denied you the mana or Vial to pull it off. Like Jailer, it's extremely powerful when it works, but it can be hard to get there (especially in game 1). It's actually a card that likely scales through the game, starting at a 0 and moving towards a 2. But you can't build that way, so it needs an evaluation, and I pegged it at 1. It's also better post-SB. I could be convinced it's a 2 here, but I'm not there yet.

    I do appreciate the feedback. The adjustment to PnKN puts it basically right at the point where the other red creatures seem to be clustering.
    Last edited by Lord Darkview; 07-22-2018 at 09:34 PM.

  17. #10017
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    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    Quote Originally Posted by Medea_ View Post
    A second guest touranment report?! And this one also says Brightling is good?!?!
    Is it possible that StarCityGames events are quite soft in general? I always have the feeling that you have to take these things with a grain of salt. If you pay closer attention to the report, the only matchups where Brightling really mattered are against RUG Delver, a matchup that is already very beatable without Brightling. Does Brightling improve other matchups that are otherwise bad?
    Brightling is nice against Red Prison because it is somehow still capable of attacking through Ensnaring Bridge, but is it better than Prelate on 4?

    I have the feeling that people are still more on a kind of hype train. Christian Hauck and I played the Legacy Challenge yesterday and both top8ed, he with a 6-1 record and I with 5-2 and a bit of luck and good breakers. I proceeded to finals, beating Eldrazi Stompy and SneakShow and then getting crushed by EldraziPost. And what can I say, Brightling would have never mattered. It would have been okay in a few different spots (for instance against Eldrazi where it would clearly have been better than the Sanctum Prelate that was stuck in my hand) but probably not gamewinning because it's extremely mana-hungry and I can't lock my opponent down on mana and use Brightling properly at the same time. Brimaz would have been nice, but its soft to Karakas.

    Remorseful Cleric is just BS in my opinion. Its body is mediocre and the Tormod's Crypt effect basically never matters in the matchups where graveyardhate is necessary, Reanimator and Storm are just too fast and it can't efficiently hit PunFire and Loam if the pilot is not playing like an idiot. It is somehow good in the mirrormatch because of its stats because any evasion creature with Jitte can win, but at the same time it just dies to opposing Jittes. This is the reason why I'm still on 2 Serra Avengers, they are quite solid and a bit more resilient to Jitte and PunFire.

    You will see a Benalish Marshal in our sideboard, but I'd ignore that. It was an idea to clock fast decks and have a tool to mitigate Dread of Nights and Sulfur Elementals, but I guess the card is too cute and it also never mattered.

    I do like the Leonin Relic-Warder though and I'd try some kind of Disenchant effect in my sideboard (Disenchant or Abolish would be an option).

    In the challenge I got defeated by the mirror match (Manriki Gusari is dirty), RUG Delver on god mode and in the finals by Eldrazi Post. How do you defeat this deck? It feels unwinnable to me.
    Team SPOD
    <Der_imaginäre_Freund> props:
    Adan for being the NQG God (drawer)

  18. #10018

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    My brother top 8’d the open yesterday with Miracles. Played DNT 4 times. Went 3-0-1. I asked him how Brightling was. He said irrelevant. Resolved twice, got a few chip shots in, then he end step plowed it, untapped, played Jace, countered it on the way back and it was GG. Even against its best matchup it really isn’t enough of a concern. The one game he did lose though was curving mom->thalia->THC(which he said was a huge issue)->Jailer. Vs miracles we really need adequate disruption teamed with efficient pressure and card advantage can help.

  19. #10019

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    @Adan
    WR obviously hinders their mana with Magus, but it feels like Cataclysm is a pretty big winner here. Revoker + Artifact hate is valuable. It is a hard deck to be the control deck against, but it feels like they are the beatdown because of how quickly they get big.

    How has Palace Jailer been? See you both ran it, as did someone else.

  20. #10020

    Re: [Deck] Death and Taxes

    I played in two local tournaments at Mox Boarding House in Bellevue, WA (suburb of Seattle) this weekend. The first was a 1k, the second was a 30 person invitational tournament. I made top 8 in both playing DnT, and thought I should write tournament reports.

    I took a decklist to the Saturday 1k that I thought was generally good vs the local paper metagame, then tweaked that list for the known suite of competitors in the Sunday invitational.

    Saturday 1k:

    My decklist was:

    6 Plains
    6 Snow-Covered Plains
    3 Karakas
    4 Rishadan Port
    4 Wasteland
    1 Horizon Canopy

    4 Mother of Runes
    4 Thalia, Guardian of Thraben
    4 Stoneforge Mystic
    4 Flickerwisp
    2 Phyrexian Revoker
    2 Remorseful Cleric
    2 Recruiter of the Guard
    2 Brightling
    1 Mirran Crusader

    4 Aether Vial
    4 Swords to Plowshares
    1 Batterskull
    1 Sword of Fire and Ice
    1 Umezawa's Jitte

    Sideboard:
    3 Ethersworn Canonist
    2 Leonin Relic-Warder
    2 Rest in Peace
    2 Path to Exile
    2 Council's Judgment
    1 Recruiter of the Guard
    1 Brightling
    1 Mirran Crusader
    1 Sword of War and Peace

    R1: RUG delver (W, oo)
    Game 1: I land a SFM with batterskull in hand and tutor jitte. I play around stifle by putting batterskull in play when my opponent fetches with their only untapped mana source. They try to out-zoo me with a goyf and 2 geese but I had active mom and it seemed like I would win the race - then I drew remorseful cleric and it was over.
    Game 2: They do nothing the first 2 turns then play TNN turn 3. I need to play some creatures to bait removal and counterspells but eventually land sfm and put in batterskull before tnn deals too much damage. He has a grudge in yard and can potentially win by out-tempoing batterskull by forcing me to bounce it to my hand, but he misses that line and taps out for a goyf instead. I play the jitte from my hand and eventually outclass the TNN.

    R2: OmniTell (W, oo)
    Game 1: I know my opponent and put them on OmniTell. I mulligan to Thalia. I don't remember if it gets forced or not, but his deck fails him and he never assembles A+B.
    Game 2: His deck once again never assembles A+B even though I put up minimal disruption.

    R3: Grixis Tezzerator (W, xoo)
    This match was streamed. You can see the replay here:
    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/287505659?t=02h11m01s
    Game 1: I know what my opponent is playing and mulligan a reasonable 7 that wouldn't be good in this matchup. Opponent plays a turn 1 ensnaring bridge into turn 2 bottled cloister. He gets a second bridge later, eliminating the potential to flicker a bridge after I get critical mass on board. I find a spot to get jitte counters, so I can draw either brightling or sfm as ways to get under the bridge, but I don't get either before he assembles a win con.
    Game 2: He has a very slow start and just as I'm about to assemble sofi + warm body, he +1's tezz and reveals boompile to hand. I can't prevent him from casting it, so I can play conservatively and slow roll sofi, or I can just equip and draw a card and get some damage in, putting myself in a great spot if he loses a flip. I go for the second line. He wins the flip though, which gets a bunch of his own permanents too so I'm not really behind. One of those permanents is a mox diamond, which allows me to port his colored sources much more effectively. He lands a bridge, but I can keep him off of enough colored mana that he can't empty his hand, and crusader + jitte cleans up.
    Game 3: I have a vial and use it to accelerate a bunch of little dudes. He has a slower start and plays a few cards that don't really matter. I exile a bridge with LRW and get sofi onto mirran crusader and kill him quick.

    R4: OmniTell (L, xx)
    Game 1: I put my opponent on a fair blue deck and open mom into sfm. He then plays show omni emrakul. Oops.
    Game 2: I mulligan to 5 looking for disruption. I find vial and LRW. Ok. He plays show and I put in LRW, he puts in griselbrand. Oops. I have no answers and lose to griselbrand.

    R5: DnT (W, oo)
    Game 1: I mull to 4. It's 2x plains, mom, sfm. My next two draws are stp and land. His jitte answer is a revoker and I'm able to activate sfm and plow it, untap get in with jitte. He recruits a second revoker and stabilizes for a bit, but then I find a wisp and get that out of there and win with jitte.
    Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a low-threat hand. I use LRW to get one of his two vials, but he drops Jitte right after, making me look like a dope. He uses one counter to kill my summoning sick mom. I then need to flicker my LRW and give him back his vial, and he gets to jitte kill my wisp as well. I'm out of gas at this point but then I draw Jitte and that's a good card and I win and lock myself for top 8.

    R6: ID

    Quarterfinals: OmniTell (L, xx)
    Game 1: I keep vial + recruiter + port, giving me some mana disruption + a t3 thalia. Recruiter gets forced and he plays show omni emrakul.
    Game 2: I keep mom into thalia. Thalia gets forced, and he Intuitions for SnT off of tomb + island. I have port and tap down tomb, with the logic that I'd rather let him cantrip than just lose on the spot to any blue source. I attack with mom for a few turns, waste him, get a second port active, then finally land a thalia and upkeep port him to 2 mana. He untaps and plays tomb show omni emrakul.

    Sunday Invitational:

    The invitees list for the invitational is public, and I know a lot of the other competitors, and they know me. There are a few other people expected to be on DnT, so I don't expect anyone to bring anything soft to DnT. I don't have a great read of what decks people who used to play DRS or Probe would now play, so I avoid over-tuning my deck, while putting in some sideboard hate for decks I do expect to be there.

    Before the DRS ban I was considering playing Miracles or Soldier Stompy because the expected meta was so hostile to DnT. Luckly I got to fall back on the deck I have the most experience with.

    My modifications from the above decklist were:
    Maindeck:
    -1 remorseful cleric
    +1 sanctum prelate
    Sideboard:
    -1 brightling
    -1 path to exile
    +1 pithing needle
    +1 holy light

    R1: Eldrazi (W, oxo)
    Game 3 of this match was streamed here:
    https://www.twitch.tv/videos/287915916?t=31m10s
    Game 1: I know my opponent qualified by winning a 1k with Eldrazi, but that was a while ago so I don't mulligan for a hand that is better vs Eldrazi. I lead with vial and have the option of t2 wasting my opponent's sol land or casting sfm. I don't have another land drop in hand, so I elect to cast sfm instead of wasting. My opponent punishes me by playing t2 tks and taking the skull I tutored. I draw a lot of bad cards in the matchup, but my opponent slips up and lets me trade some of my bad creatures away. I believe I traded prelate for mimic and mom + sfm + revoker for tks. My opponent doesn't keep the pressure on and I get equipment going and steal game 1.
    Game 2: I mull to 6 and keep a land light hand. I get wasted and chalice locks off multiple stp. Big creatures then kill me real quick.
    Game 3: This one was a real doozy. I'm on a mull to 5, but my opponent has a very slow start and I can comfortably t2 sfm into skull without getting punished by tks this time. There's some back and forth involving my LRW and revoker vs his jitte, ratchet bomb, and walking ballista. I think I have a good line involving using wisp to reset ratchet bomb counters, but that gets disrupted by a tks at the last possible turn. So we both end up with active Jittes, but I have a skull that gets equipped to Brightling. Batterskull + Brightling gets my life total up very high (68 at the end), but I know that's not really what the game is about because if he gets an active Jitte that won't really matter. There's some really interesting combat math turns that the commentators don't really notice, which is sad. I need to throw away a revoker one turn so that my Brightling+skull can't be double blocked and killed. I need to move Jitte onto Recruiter another turn so it can trade for a smasher, even though that gets my opponent a couple of Jitte counters. For the second time this weekend on camera, my opponent casts Boompile. I have lethal if he loses the flip, and he does, but even if he won the flip I had Brightling and PtE in hand and I think I would have won the next turn.

    R2: DnT (W, xoo)
    Game 1: I mull to 6, which is plains canopy karakas 3x vial. After I play out all 3 vials, my opponent plays revoker on vial. I see. I'm basically playing from the top of my deck by turn 3 and unsurprisingly don't find the right pieces at the right times. My opponent shows me stillmoon cavalier, so I sideboard in an extra crusader rather than taking my crusader out like I normally do.
    Game 2: Honestly, games 2 and 3 blend together a lot. My opponent plays a series of cards I think are very bad in the matchup in both games and is punished for it. I think in game 2, he plays palace jailer, I get the monarchy right away, and he concedes.
    Game 3: In this one I LRW his aether vial start and he plays batterskull and mirran crusader. I cast SoWaP. He plays CJ, but votes for my mom instead of the SoWaP. I have both my crusaders and they alternate holding the sword and attacking for a bit until opp is dead.

    R3: Jeskai Stoneblade (oxo)
    Game 1: I have plow for his first two SFMs, he doesn't have answers to my equipment and I get my equipment online before him
    Game 2: I get a clock going with remorseful cleric, but that's the only attacker I get all game, and I'm stuck with a lot of reactive cards in hand. He cliques my SoFI away, and sticks his own equipment through my reactive cards before cleric beats can get there.
    Game 3: His first turn is island pass, turn 2 is brainstorm pass. I just get vial + recruiter + wisp beats on while he sits there cantripping to find lands.

    R4: Grixis Control (xx)
    Game 1: I keep a hand with vial, sfm, 2x plow, 2x plains, port. He plays t1 thoughtseize and takes my sfm and I feel like I'm already dead. We play out a few turns and yeah I'm dead.
    Game 2: I establish a board of thalia, brightling, karakas to blank his removal. Unfortunately, he has a strix which blanks brightling, so I sit there attacking for 2 and passing for a while. This gives him just enough time to establish a Jace and he kills me.

    R5: ID

    Quarterfinals: Elves (xxoox) (bo5)
    Game 1: I mull to 5 trying to find a hand with some disruption. I don't find one and he kills me quick.
    Game 2: I mull to 5 trying to find a hand with some disruption. I don't find one and he kills me quick.
    Game 3: I get a hand with a plow, jitte, and crusader. He glimpses the turn before I can get jitte onto crusader but fizzles and I get counters and kill his elves.
    Game 4: He keeps a really bad hand where his first two turns are dryad arbor pass. The first one gets wasted, the second one gets plowed. I have a second plow for his turn 3 mana elf, and I start beating down with remorseful cleric and crusader. He's stuck on mana for a bit and almost works his way out of it at 1 life but I prevail.
    Game 5: I keep a good hand with needle, revoker, jitte, and crusader. His turn 1 play is fyndhorn elves, and I elect to pass instead of casting blind needle. This was a mistake. He turn 2 glimpses, and my turn 2 revoker isn't enough to stop hoof from coming down turn 3.

    Even though I lost in the quarterfinals both times, making top 8 twice in a weekend is a really good feeling and I'm happy with my results. Normally I skip to the end for tournament reports so I'll throw in some props and slops for other people like me.

    Props:

    Card Kingdom / Mox Boarding House for running a legacy invitational tournament with a year long qualifying process. It really united the community and gave us all something to be excited about.

    Boompile. I had never heard of the card before, and it gets activated against me twice on camera in the same weekend. What a world.

    Leonin Relic-Warder for being a very versatile and impactful sideboard card, I was really happy running 2 because it meant I was drawing them naturally instead of needing to recruit them.

    Horizon Canopy. Damage dealt to me was irrelevant, re-draws were very relevant. I really think anyone who is down on this card and is also running 24 lands needs to try it out.

    Slops:

    Sanctum Prelate for not being in my deck when I needed it, and for being in my deck when it was a grey ogre. I sided it out every match Sunday.

    Dragon Shield Mattes. I bought a new pack and re-sleeved my deck before Sunday. I broke a total of 10(!!) brand new sleeves while shuffling on Sunday. I bought some ultra pro eclipse on my way out, I'll see how they do I guess.

    Snow-Covered Plains. I never faced a deck with Predict, and I was just tilting myself all weekend playing with 6 good plains and 6 ugly plains.

    Playing 5 rounds of swiss to determine the top 8 of an invitational tournament. It was kind of lame to be virtually locked after 3 rounds of swiss. Hopefully they have a better system in place next year.

    Top 8 brackets for pairing me with Omni and Elves, DnT's two worst matchups.

    And sadly... Brightling. I brought them out in 6 out of 11 matches (vs omni, dnt, elves), and it got blanked by TNN or Strix in two of the matches where I kept it in. It was really only actively good against Eldrazi. I think the card is super cool and it has a lot of versatility but maybe the meta just isn't very good for it.

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